Method of determining chronic fatigue syndrome

Abstract

The present invention provides a method of determining whether or not a subject is affected with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) comprising: measuring, in a biological sample from the subject, an expression level of a transcript of at least one gene respectively from at least two gene groups selected from six specific gene groups; calculating a value representing a deviation of the measured expression level based on an expression level of a transcript of the corresponding gene in a population of healthy subjects; obtaining an average of the value(s) representing a deviation; and determining whether or not the subject is affected with CFS by using the average.

1 . A method of determining whether or not a subject is affected with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) comprising the steps of:
 measuring, in a biological sample from the subject, an expression level of a transcript of at least one gene respectively from at least two gene groups selected from energy production-related gene group, virus infection-related gene group, cell death-related gene group, antioxidation-related gene group, immune function-related gene group and iron regulation-related gene group,   calculating a value representing a deviation of the measured expression level based on an expression level of a transcript of the corresponding gene in a population of healthy subjects,   obtaining an average by, (i) when one value representing a deviation is obtained for one gene from the gene group selected, taking the value representing a deviation for the gene as the average, or (ii) when two or more values representing a deviation are obtained for two or more genes from the gene group selected, calculating the average from the values representing a deviation for the two or more genes, and   determining whether or not the subject is affected with CFS by using the obtained average.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the expression level of a transcript of at least one gene respectively from at least three gene groups is measured in the measuring step. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 the energy production-related gene group comprises ATP synthase-related genes, mitochondrial ribosomal protein-related genes,   NADH dehydrogenase-related genes and mitochondrial DNA synthesis-related genes,   the virus infection-related gene group comprises interferon-related genes,   the cell death-related gene group comprises caspase-related genes and sphingomyelin synthase-related genes,   the antioxidation-related gene group comprises glutathione S-transferase related genes,   the immune function-related gene group comprises T-cell receptor-related genes and NK cell receptor-related genes, and   the iron regulation-related gene group comprises iron-responsive element binding protein-related genes.   
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 the gene in the energy production-related gene group is selected from the group consisting of the genes having Entrez Gene IDs 506, 518, 517, 516, 513, 63931, 6182, 6183, 6150, 51081, 60488, 54948, 51021, 51373, 65003, 26589, 64981, 63875, 64951, 64978, 64928, 219927, 116540, 122704, 4706, 4717, 4695, 4718, 4710 / / / 727762, 54539, 51079, 4715, 4716, 55967, 126328 and 5428;   the gene in the cell death-related gene group is selected from the group consisting of the genes having Entrez Gene IDs 114769 / / / 834, 22900, 836, 842, 838, 837, 834, 839, 841, 84674, 259230, 81537 and 166929;   the gene in the virus infection-related gene group is selected from the group consisting of the genes having Entrez Gene IDs 3428 and 64135;   the gene in the antioxidation-related gene group is selected from the group consisting of the genes having Entrez Gene IDs 2950, 9446, 2947, 2946, 2944, 2949, 2948, 373156, 79807 and 2941,   the gene in the immune function-related gene group is selected from the group consisting of the genes having Entrez Gene IDs 28755 / / / 6955, 28663 / / / 28738 / / / 28755 / / / 6955, 6955, 28663 / / / 28738 / / / 28755 / / / 6955 / / / 6964, 445347 / / / 6967, 6955 / / / 6964, 28595, 3812 / / / 727787, 3808, 3804, 3806, 3802, 3811 / / / 3813, 57292, 100132285 / / / 3806 / / / 3809, 3811, 3809 / / / 115653; and   the gene in the iron regulation-related gene group is the gene having Entrez Gene ID 3658.   
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the biological sample is blood. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the determining step is carried out by feeding the average obtained from the subject to a determination equation obtained from an average preliminary obtained by corresponding steps to the steps of measuring, calculating and obtaining using biological samples from healthy subjects and an average preliminary obtained by corresponding steps to the steps of measuring, calculating and obtaining using biological samples from CFS patients. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 6 , wherein the determination equation is generated with Support Vector Machine. 
     
     
         8 . A computer program product for enabling a computer to determine whether or not a subject is affected with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) comprising a computer readable medium, and software instructions, on the computer-readable medium, for enabling the computer to perform predetermined operations comprising:
 receiving an expression level of a transcript of at least one gene respectively from at least two gene groups selected from energy production-related gene group, virus infection-related gene group, cell death-related gene group, antioxidation-related gene group, immune function-related gene group and iron regulation-related gene group measured in a biological sample from the subject,   calculating a value representing a deviation of the measured expression level based on an expression level of a transcript of the corresponding gene in a population of healthy subjects, and obtaining an average by, (i) when one value representing a deviation is obtained for one gene from the gene group selected, taking the value representing the deviation for the gene as the average, or (ii) when two or more values representing a deviation are obtained for two or more genes from the gene group selected, calculating the average from the values representing a deviation for the two or more genes,   determining whether or not the subject is affected with CFS by using the average, and   outputting the result obtained by the determining.   
     
     
         9 . The computer program product according to  claim 8 , which comprises Support Vector Machine.